Men’s Style Lab announces $1.85M angel investment, launches new site

DES MOINES—With the biggest retail period of the year already underway, Men’s Style Lab has an extra reason to be cheery this holiday season.

On Monday, the Des Moines-based concierge clothing company announced a total of $1.85 million in angel investment, $1.1 million of which was raised recently and $750,000 that closed earlier this summer.

Jeff Rusinow—founder of Milwaukee angel network Silicon Pastures—was the lead investor in the most recent raise and also serves as the chairman of Men’s Style Lab’s board. Rick Leto, former CEO of Mervyn’s and executive vice president of Kohl’s and Macy’s, also contributed to the $1.1 million round. Additional investors in both of the raises were not disclosed.

“One of the best things about our investors is what they bring to the table,” Men’s Style Lab founder and CEO Derian Baugh told SPN. “Our funding has brought together a group of people who have strong experience in retail, e-commerce, finance and technology. For an assisted-commerce company like ours, fine tuning each of these areas will contribute significantly to our ability to scale and I am confident we’ve found the right partners to do just that.”

Founded early last year, Men’s Style Lab is an online concierge clothing service that helps everyday guys update their wardrobe through outfits delivered to their door. In early 2014, Men’s Style Lab was accepted into gener8tor, a 90-day Milwaukee-based accelerator program.

Baugh says the investment will be used to help expand Men’s Style Lab’s executive team and further build out the company’s infrastructure. For one, the startup plans to move from its offices in the downtown Midland Building to a larger warehouse facility early next year to keep up with demand, according to a release.

While Baugh declined to give specifics on the number of orders the startup is currently filling or customers the team is serving, he did note that currently Men’s Style Lab is reporting revenue increases of 40 percent month-over-month. However, in August, Baugh told SPN the startup was on pace to break $1 million in sales by the end of 2014.

A different type of style upgrade

The startup’s new site offers an array of images and price points of items customers may receive in their box.

Just in time for Cyber Monday, Men’s Style Lab also launched a new website that helps its customers more easily complete their style profile and preview the experience they’ll get.

In addition to a more visual user experience, Baugh also notes that none of the models you’ll see on the sight are, well, actual models. Instead they’re friends, co-workers, the everyday guys that Men’s Style Lab targets with its services.

“Everything we do at Men’s Style Lab is about the everyday guy,” Baugh said. “That is why we don’t have photos of models on our website.

“We purposefully used pictures of regular guys. These guys were our very first customers. They’re the kind of guys you might pass on the street in any town across the country. They’re the kind of guys most of us are.”

The new site also offers a simplified ordering process using a more visually focused survey. Customers will be able to self-select categories about their personal style, their desired budget and specific items they’d like included.